LETTERS TO HOME & GARDEN

Published
4:00 am PDT, Saturday, September 23, 2006

Mesh-cloaked exterior leaves observer cold

Editor -- Could there be any more anti-urban and anti-San Francisco building than the Stanley Saitowitz-designed apartment building on Natoma Street? He was quoted in the article ("Modern design: The sky's the limit" by Susan Fornoff, Sept. 13) as stating, "I'm getting older and impatient with details." It clearly shows that he is impatient with details since his building seems to lack a facade other than a bland mesh screen. This isn't the 1950s again; I would hope we have learned more about making interesting streetscapes than those horrid, abstract, mesh-veiled buildings they put up 50 years ago. The headline of the article mentions "... making connections to history, neighborhood and nature." I see no such connections in Saitowitz's building design on Natoma Street.

HOSSEIN SEPAS

San Francisco

Uncomfortable chairs

Editor -- (Re: Lynette Evans' column, "Modern is more about seeing than sitting," Sept. 16): Thanks for daring to expose this so-called icon of design, the Barcelona chair, for what it is: an uncomfortable assemblage of chair elements paying homage to Mies van der Rohe's monumental ego. It is not a chair. And you're right about Wegner. He did sit in his chairs and made numerous prototypes -- as opposed to drawings -- before he committed the design to production. My guess about the Barcelona chair is that van der Rohe, who had no skills as a maker, sketched it a few times and then handed it off to some "mere craftsman" to execute. Looks nice, causes people to sigh about it (and its price), but it is not a chair -- for anyone of any age.